A/N: Thanks to mxpw for betaing this chapter and being my sounding board for not only this, but Roads and a new fic I'm working on. I should also thank him for the time that a lion escaped from the zoo, and it was about to eat me, but he destroyed it with his bare hands.
Thanks to you for reading and for leaving wonderful reviews! I'll see you at the end!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Chuck related, minus the DVDs and the Subway sandwich that I got way back in the day. It's gone now.

Depression

He woke up early that morning; 4:25 AM was when he decided not to bother falling back asleep. His dreams from the night before were depressing, to say the least. There was a dream where his parents were sipping drinks with tiny, colorful umbrellas that hung from the rims on a tropical island. Another, extremely random dream, where Sarah was getting married to Bryce was the last straw for Chuck. He really didn't know where the hell that dream came from, and why it would make him feel so upset. Sighing, he turned over on his stomach.

As he buried his face deep into his pillow, Chuck knew that today was going to be a horrible, terrible, no good kind of day.

He didn't want to deal with anything. His dreams had seriously hurt his feelings like there was no tomorrow, and then there was school. It was a place where Chuck felt really out of his element. For the most part, people ignored him, and that was probably worse than getting bullied. On occasion, he felt hurt and betrayed whenever Sarah didn't acknowledge him at school. He understood why, though. She was all that and a bag of chips. Guys worshipped the ground she walked on and girls wanted to be her. So he understood why, and at the very least, they spent a lot of time outside of school.

As for Chuck's situation at school, well, sometimes it seemed as though no one knew he existed. In reality, they did know who he was, but they didn't acknowledge him. Morgan used to be his only friend, other than Sarah, at school. However, after his parents had gotten a divorce, he moved to Burbank.

The rare occasions where someone other than Sarah acknowledged him were when Bryce and his buddies would call him "fart-knocker." What that meant, he didn't know. And there were other times where Carina would acknowledge him, but that was only for their chemistry homework.

"Oh, crap," he murmured.

He had forgotten to do Carina's lab report. Oh, well, it really wasn't his problem. She was fully capable of doing her own damn report. What made her time more valuable than his, anyway? He had had a terrible last couple of days. He shouldn't have to worry about some lab report for someone else. Yesterday, Sarah had told him, "Just think about yourself. For once."

So maybe he would.

Chuck slid out of bed. After glancing around the room that Sarah had decorated to be nearly identical to his old room, he let himself smile, and made his way toward the kitchen to get a glass of water. It was a bit too early to take a shower, as the bathroom was quite close to Sarah's room, and he'd probably wake her up. However, he seriously doubted that she would walk in on him again, but he made a mental note to lock the door when the time eventually came for him to shower.

"Hi, Chuck," a soft voice came from behind him.

He jumped a bit and turned. At first, he thought it was Sarah, but the voice came from Mrs. Walker. They really did look alike, Sarah and her mother, although Mrs. Walker was just a bit shorter than Sarah. But still, their faces were very similar.

"Hi, Mrs. Walker," he said, placing his cup down next to the sink. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

She shook her head and smiled. "I always wake up early every morning to get some painting done."

For reasons that were difficult to explain, Chuck felt a sharp pain in his chest upon hearing that. He had always known that Mrs. Walker was a great artist, and that that was what she had always wanted to do. Maybe it was the fact that she would always wake up early in the morning just to get about two hours of painting done. For the rest of her day, Chuck assumed that she would begin preparing breakfast for the family, get her children out of bed, clean the house, go to work, come home, prepare dinner, and make sure that Sarah had done her homework.

It hurt him to know that she only had two hours for herself all day. It made him resent his parents even more. If Mrs. Walker could take care of her children, why couldn't they?

So he nodded, not knowing exactly what to say.

"You want to see what I've been working on?" She nodded toward the door that led to the garage, where Chuck knew her studio was, and grinned.

Once more, Chuck nodded and followed Mrs. Walker into her studio.

"It's going to get better, you know," she said, opening the door.

"What is?"

Mrs. Walker turned on the lights in the garage, and he saw all the paintings and sketches that she had done over the years. Buildings, landscapes, pictures of her and her husband in their younger years, Sarah, Conner, and even some of Chuck and Ellie. Another lump formed in his throat, for yet another unknown reason.

"How you're feeling right now," she replied as she sat in front of a canvas covered in light pencil marks that he assumed would be painted over when the time came.

Chuck couldn't recognize what was going on in the light sketch. It looked like a man holding something (maybe an ice pack?) against his face and a woman staring timidly down at her cup.

He looked at Mrs. Walker who was grinning at him. "I'm serious, Chuck. I know you're hurting a lot right now, but things always have a way of getting better in the long run."

"Really?"

She nodded as she reached up to give him a tap on his nose with the end of a thin brush. "You can count on it, young sir."

A wave of warmth and appreciation overwhelmed him, and he couldn't stop the tears that began to fall. It was just too much to handle, the last day and a half. There were so many different things that ran through his mind—so many feelings. Mr. Walker's awkward, yet comforting offer of letting him know that Chuck was going to be safe; his father's departure, along with the feeling of abandonment; Sarah's comforting warmth as she had joked around with him at the park; the fear he couldn't explain; the overwhelming change of his situation; and now, Mrs. Walker was wrapping her arms tightly around him. It was too much.

Knowing that she woke up every morning just to have some time for herself so that she could paint, and knowing that she never once thought about leaving her family behind was too much to handle. He felt guilty, knowing that the Walkers had taken him in, despite their financial situation.

But as she gently cradled the back of his head with a hand, he automatically felt comforted. Neither of them said a word. The minutes went by, and Chuck began to calm down. He took a step back, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and sniffed. Mrs. Walker wiped her own eyes as well.

Slightly embarrassed, but knowing that they had come to an understanding of sorts, Chuck pointed to the canvas. "So what are you working on?"

She wiped her eyes with her pinky as she replied, "It's supposed to be the day I met Gerald."

"Oh." Chuck frowned as he stared at what he guessed was an ice pack pressing against Mr. Walker's face. "That's an ice pack?"

Mrs. Walker nodded and chuckled. "Yes it is," she replied. "That was an interesting day."

Chuck smiled politely, waiting for Mrs. Walker to continue.

"In short," she began, with another chuckle, and a slight hint of a blush, "someone stole my purse, and ran off with it. I chased after him. Gerald saw, tackled the thief, and got quite the shiner on his face. I was so grateful. I offered to get him a cup of coffee as a thank you. It didn't hurt that Gerald was extremely handsome, either."

Chuck laughed. "So that's how you and Mr. Walker met, huh?"

"In a nut-shell." She pointed to the canvas. "So that's us at the diner I took him to. It was a good day."

Chuck smiled appreciatively at the picture. "Well, I should let you get on with it, then. I'll just get an early start on getting ready for school."

"Okay, then," said Mrs. Walker, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll see you in a bit, Chuck."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

Before he left the garage, Chuck turned back to Mrs. Walker. "Thank you, Mrs. Walker. For…" he trailed off and shrugged, hoping she understood.

She held up a hand. "It's my pleasure, Chuck."

Denial

Sarah and Chuck walked to school in silence. She knew that school was the last place that Chuck wanted to be, and she couldn't, for the life of her, come up with a way to cheer him up. There was a point, earlier, where Sarah kept nudging Chuck with her elbow repeatedly. Although he was smiling and chuckling, she guessed that after awhile it annoyed him.

Suddenly, Chuck stopped.

"What's up?" she asked, stepping in front of him.

"Nothing," he replied, shooting her his usual half-grin. "I'm just psyching myself up."

She smiled. "You just want to play hooky today? Sneak off somewhere, see a movie, or maybe we can steal a car or seven?" She bit her bottom lip and wiggled her eyebrows, eliciting a chuckle from him.

"Oh, definitely," he quipped.

"But seriously," she said, pulling along Chuck as she walked backwards, "if you feel like you can't deal with your classes, or people, or whatever, just find me, and we'll just take a break at the library or something."

"Okay." He smiled and began to walk on his own.

When they reached school, Sarah saw Bryce storming over to them. Before she could comprehend what has happening, Bryce grabbed Chuck by the front of his shirt and shook him roughly.

"Bryce, what the hell?" cried Sarah, shoving him off Chuck.

He ignored her, and shrugged her hand off him, once again rounding up on Chuck, who looked more confused than terrified. "What were you doing with my girl?"

"What are you talking about?" she and Chuck asked in unison.

"Everyone that was at Kowalski's kegger saw you guys making out!"

If only, thought Sarah.

Chuck, however, just looked affronted. It was a bit unsettling, because for a moment, her crazy mind thought that Chuck was thinking that making out with her would be terrible. But she quickly understood why. He wasn't the kind of guy to make out with a drunk girl, even if she, like Sarah, wanted it.

"Yeah, and even though Sarah's grounded, she left the house to hang out with you yesterday!"

"She left her house because she was looking for me!" cried Chuck. "Listen—whoa!"

Bryce wasn't going to let Chuck talk, she realized, as, his face contorted in anger, he lunged toward Chuck. Sarah, again, shoved Bryce away. This time, her face was twisted menacingly. She grabbed a fistful of Bryce's shirt and stepped up close to him.

"If you so much as even flick a piece of dust off of Chuck, I swear to God, I'll kick your balls so hard, you're going to be sorry that you were born a man," she growled, feeling the rage flowing in her veins. "Chuck and I didn't do anything at Kowalski's kegger. If anything, Chuck was nothing but a gentleman to me that night. While the other guys were all trying to get in my pants, Chuck took care of me. And the reason why I left the house yesterday to look for him was because I was worried about him. You got that?"

Bryce avoided making eye contact with her, but instead he looked at Chuck. "Why would she be worried about you? Aren't you usually too busy jacking off to your comic books?"

Chuck pulled her away by her shoulders with surprising strength just as she was about to knee Bryce in the groin. As she struggled to pull away from him, Chuck said, "She was worried about me because my dad left while I was at the dance."

"What do you mean your dad left?"

"He just left," said Chuck. "So Sarah left her house because she's a good friend, okay?"

Bryce's brows scrunched together. "So he just ran off?"

"Pretty much."

"Why?"

Chuck shrugged as he let Sarah go. "I couldn't tell you."

"Dude…" sighed Bryce. He opened his mouth to say more, but stopped, looking behind Chuck's shoulder.

Confused, Sarah turned to see that Jill was behind them; about a yard away.

"False alarm, Lill," called Bryce's voice from behind Sarah. For a moment, she wondered who Lill was, but realized that Bryce had just gotten Jill's name wrong. "They didn't bang at Kowalski's."

Jill ignored Bryce, while Sarah rolled her eyes. Stupid high school rumors, she thought, as Jill said, "Your dad left?"

Chuck nodded solemnly.

"And you didn't tell me?" she demanded.

"Oh, wow, are you serious?" Sarah had to laugh at the absurdity of it. In a second, stupid Jill was going to flip out. And even Sarah had to admit that, yes, if Bryce had gone through something that huge, and he didn't confide in her, that she would be annoyed. But to actually make it about her? That was just dumb. "Seriously. You're going to freak out on Chuck because he didn't tell you that his dad left?"

"Sarah," groaned Chuck.

She ignored him. "I get it, you're his girlfriend. But he's your boyfriend, and he just went through this huge life-changing…thing, in one night! Cut him some slack for not telling you right away, and quit being a bitch about it."

"Sarah, stop," said Chuck with a stern look on his face. "Like you said, Jill's my girlfriend, and I don't want you to talk to her like that."

"Well, someone has to!" she protested. But just then, Jill stormed away and Chuck followed, calling after her.

Sarah wasn't going to lie, Chuck defending stupid Jill, and chasing after her was a punch to the gut. And she feared that Chuck was angry with her.

"Poor guy," mumbled Bryce.

"What?"

"I seriously feel bad for the guy," he explained. "His dad really left without telling him?"

"Yeah." She turned to Bryce, who genuinely looked upset.

"Well, go make sure he's okay." He nudged her forward. "That Lill girl was scary pissed when I told her that you and Chuck banged at Kowalski's. Seriously, I'm glad that I didn't have El Mariachi last night, if you know what I mean."

Sarah laughed.

"Go save the nerd."

Anger

"Jill! Wait!" cried Chuck, pushing past the other students near the school entrance.

"Your dad left you all alone, and you didn't tell me!" Jill yelled so loudly that he was sure the citizens of China heard. The crowd around Chuck suddenly got quiet. All eyes were locked on him, and Jill continued, "I'm your girlfriend!"

"Jeez, drama queen," he murmured, feeling extremely self-conscious with everyone staring at him.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing!" he quickly replied, cowering as she advanced quickly on him.

She wasn't a Rancor today. No. She was something else entirely…maybe Kong. An angry Kong that just wanted to go home, swatting down airplanes like they were moths. Suddenly, Chuck wished that he was wearing a white dress and a blonde wig.

Jill stepped up close to him, and his heart was probably a second away from failing at the sight of her angry glare. "What bothers me the most," she said in a chillingly calm voice, "is that Sarah knew before I did. And I kept calling you all day yesterday. The least you could have done was called me back."

Before he could explain himself, Jill stormed away as the crowd parted like the Red Sea. Chuck sighed. She did have a reason (though he thought it was a weak one) to be angry with him. Jill was like him—self-conscious and an outcast at school. It was obvious from the minute they started dating that Jill was intimidated by Sarah. He could understand that, as nearly everyone was intimidated by her. Even he was, and he had known her for nearly their entire lives.

"What happened?" Sarah's voice broke through his thoughts, and she quickly turned to the crowd. With just a look from the blonde, the crowd quickly scattered away. She turned to Chuck again. "Did she break up with you?"

"Not yet," he said, rubbing his chin. "It's probably a matter of time before she does, though."

"Good. You can do better than her." He scowled, but Sarah didn't cower. "What? It's the truth. If more girls knew you like I did, they'd be lucky to have you."

He rolled his eyes. Yeah, and that was why she had broken up with him all those years ago, and that was why she had dated other guys instead of him throughout the years. "Oh, I bet!" he deadpanned. "They'd be breaking down the doors trying to get to me!"

Sarah glared. "Come on, Chuck, don't do that. It's annoying."

He sighed. He knew that Sarah was just being nice when she had said that, and that him playing the pity-card was annoying to even him. "Well, either way, I really like Jill."

"Why?" she challenged. "What makes her so special? To me, she seems like a self-centered bi—"

"Don't finish that," he said. "You don't hear me saying stuff about Bryce."

"What's there to—" she broke off, a look of realization formed. "Touché."

Chuck smiled. "Yeah. And Jill, she's really not that bad when it's just the two of us hanging out. I think she's intimidated by you, you know?"

"Why would she be?"

He couldn't help but laugh. "Dude, you're Sarah Walker, that's why. The most beautiful girl in the school, the girl that all the guys want, and the girl that all the girls want to be. And you're my best friend. I totally understand why Jill's like that when you're around." He offered a shrug.

Sarah turned the slightest shade of pink. They both turned away. Sarah looked down at her feet, while Chuck stared at the flagpole. Finally, she broke the silence. "Does she make you happy?"

He thought for a moment. Jill was the only person, besides Morgan, that played video games, enjoyed sci-fi movies, and comic books. Though really, if he wanted someone to nerd out with, then he could have just gone over to Morgan's. Burbank wasn't too far. But she was also pretty, smart, and she could be funny too. Wasn't that all you needed in a relationship? And when she wasn't in Rancor mode, or Kong mode, he actually did have a lot of fun with her.

"Yeah, I guess she does."

Sarah nodded as the first bell rang. "C'mon, I'll walk you to your class."

They walked in silence to Chuck's chemistry class. Before he walked into the classroom, she grabbed his elbow. "Remember, if you feel like you can't…deal…or whatever, let me know, okay?"

"Okay," he said while Sarah smiled at him. "Thanks."

"I'll see you after class."

"Sounds good."

Sarah gave his elbow a squeeze and jogged off to her first class of the day. When she turned the corner, Chuck walked into the classroom, sat down at his lab table, and pulled out his homework. Bryce walked in soon after, and as he reached out a hand to clap Chuck on the shoulder, Chuck shuddered because he thought Bryce was going to punch him. Instead, it was just a typical tap on the shoulder. Next, Carina walked in, sank down into the stool next to his, and held out her hand.

"I didn't do your report," he said, not looking at her. Normally, he would have felt bad about it, but he was surprised that he wasn't.

Anger spread throughout her face. "What?"

"I didn't have time to do it." It was true. He had been too busy watching Sarah being surprisingly good at Zelda. "And just a thought, maybe you could do your own homework from now on? I have more important things to do."

"What could a nerd like you have to do that's so important? It probably doesn't take too long to polish your wand, right?"

"I don't even have a wand."

Carina raised a brow. "I always knew Walker was into girls."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. Carina's eyes flicked to his crotch, and he finally caught the innuendo. Glaring, he blurted, "Sarah is right about you. You're a bitch."

Immediately, after the words spilled out from his mouth, he regretted it. Carina gave him a scandalized look. "What'd you just call me?"

"Leave him alone, Carina," said Bryce from behind them. "He's had a rough weekend."

Chuck turned, baffled, to Bryce who just gave him a solemn nod. That was the first time anyone but Sarah had stood up for him at school. It was…nice, he thought, but awkward. From the corner of his eye, he could see Carina alternating a confused look between him and Bryce.

"Did Bryce touch you?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

It was Chuck's turn to give her a scandalized look. Seriously, who would even think that? "No, Bryce didn't touch me."

"Well, then what the hell is wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Chuck. Especially with someone he didn't even know very well, he thought.

Bargaining

Maybe Chuck wasn't being honest with her when he said that Jill made him happy. How could he even know that? It wasn't like he socialized much with girls other than her and Jill. But Sarah still needed to find Jill. There was no way she was going to let someone else leave Chuck. When Chuck finally realized that Jill wasn't the right girl for him, he could end that relationship on his terms. Not now, though, when he probably wasn't sure if he even liked Jill to the point where he'd want to continue dating her, and especially when his father had just left him.

Sarah scanned around the hall, looking for any sign of stupid Jill. She was probably going to be late for her Trig class, but Mr. Rivera wouldn't care if she was late anyway. When she turned into the Literature section of the school, she saw who she was looking for—stupid Jill—about to walk into her class.

"Hey, Jill!" she yelled, jogging over to the brunette. "Hold up!"

Jill flashed her a dirty look and proceeded into her class. Sarah sprinted and grabbed Jill above her elbow and yanked.

"Ow!" shrieked Jill, pulling her arm away from Sarah.

"Shut up," said Sarah coldly, "that didn't hurt."

The look on Jill's face was nothing short of the enraged fury that came out of Satan's butt hole, but Sarah didn't flinch.

"Well, what do you want?" asked Jill, rubbing her arm.

"What I want is for you to quit being the world's biggest bitch." Sarah flung her hair back. "Do you have any idea what Chuck went through last weekend?"

Jill's face softened just the slightest bit. "I just…why didn't he call me? I mean, you obviously knew about it. Why did he tell you but not me?"

"Okay, first of all, he didn't tell me. It was a huge surprise, actually." She shuddered at the thought of Chuck seeing her good girl. If it was under different circumstances, well…she wouldn't have minded as much. She pushed that thought away. "While we were all at homecoming, Chuck's dad came to talk to my parents, okay? He asked them to take care of him, because he had to go away." Jill opened her mouth to say something, that was most likely something stupid, but Sarah held up her hand. "Before you make this about you again, Chuck's dad asked my parents because my family has known his family for fourteen years, so we've all established some trust."

"Chuck's living with you, now?"

Sarah flinched. She didn't even know that it was possible for someone to be as dramatic as Jill. "Oh my God, drama queen! Calm down! Where else is he going to stay?"

Stupid Jill stood there looking stupid. At that moment, Sarah thought up of a lot more adjectives to use for Jill, but she decided to just stick with stupid. She let out a sigh.

"Listen, for reasons I don't understand, Chuck likes you. I mean, yeah, you're pretty, but to me, that just doesn't cut it because you're obviously a self-centered cuh—" she caught herself before she had said an extremely nasty word aloud, "bitch. Anyway, he likes you, and he cares about you. That's all that should matter. If you break up with him, then you're going to break him more than he already is right now."

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Jill.

"Because I care about Chuck, stupid!" If Jill made Sarah roll her eyes one more time, she was certain they were going to pop out of her head. "I've known Chuck for fourteen years, okay? I've been there with him, through everything good and bad. And I know, since his dad just left, that if you break up with him, he's going to…" she broke off, feeling a lump in her throat that she quickly swallowed. "I just don't want to see him hurting, okay? You're lucky to have him. Just…just…please don't hurt him."

She didn't give Jill a chance to respond as she turned to walk away. What happened next was up to stupid Jill, and for the first time, Sarah really hoped, for Chuck's sake, that Jill really wasn't as stupid as she thought she was.

If only things had been different.

Sarah stormed through the halls, lost in her thoughts about how things could have played out if only she had told Chuck what she had wanted to tell him at the dance: that she loved him. Not in the friendly, platonic way, but in the actual, "Oh my gosh! When I think about you, I feel my heart breaking. But at the same time, my heart feels complete," kind of way. But there was just too much risk involved. She knew how big of a bitch move it was for her to be afraid of what people would think if she and Chuck dated. And no matter how much she hated herself, she couldn't ignore it. Sometimes she even had nightmares about the countless number of faces laughing at her.

She was a coward.

"Hey, babe!" Bryce was waiting for her by her locker, and at the sight of his face, all her thoughts broke away. "You're running pretty late."

"I don't want to date you anymore." She gently pushed him away from her locker, and twirled the combo-lock.

"What?"

Sarah repeated herself as she took her Trigonometry text book out of her locker. Bryce stood in front of her looking flabbergasted, and Sarah wondered why she wasn't feeling sorry for him. At that moment, she realized that she was indeed a bitch. What hurt her was that she realized that she really wasn't so different from stupid Jill.

She really had to change that about herself. "I'm sorry, Bryce," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just…I don't know. I guess I'm not happy with you. I know that sounds incredibly bitchy, but it's the truth. And I am sorry, because you can be a good guy."

Poor Bryce seemed to have transformed from a sixteen-year old teen to a tearful five-year old child. "You're really dumping me?"

She nodded her head. "I'm sorry."

"Oh…" he wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Well, at least we had fun."

Since she didn't know what exactly to say to that, she nodded again. "Okay."

"Can we still be friends? I mean, I was thinking about asking Chuck if he wanted to hang out, because I feel bad for the guy. Maybe we could all hang out together?"

It was extremely hard to fight her grimace at the thought of the three of them all hanging out together. But she gritted her teeth, and smiled. "That would be…nice."

He sniffed. "Cool."

"Okay, well…I should get to class, I'm already late," she said, sidestepping Bryce and power-walking down the hall.

Today was just weird, she thought. There was no other way of putting it.

Acceptance

"You're sure you don't want to just wait for me at the library?" asked Sarah, looking up at Chuck while she was tying her cleats. He had told her that he was going to sit up on the bleachers to do his homework for the night. She suspected that he was avoiding Jill, probably because he thought she was going to break up with him. Chuck was never the kind of guy to rip off the band-aid quickly.

He looked around the field. "Actually, I can't remember if I told you this earlier, but I sort of called, well, I called Carina a bitch in Chemistry today. I was thinking—"

Sarah's laughter cut him off. Chuck called Carina a bitch? Good for him! That whorish redhead had it coming to her. Still laughing, she held up her hand for a high-five.

"Dude," he began, not slapping his hand against hers, "I felt terrible after I said it. I was thinking that after practice, I could apologize to her."

It was just like him to want to apologize, but she really couldn't help from scoffing. "Chuck, she doesn't deserve an apology. Obviously, if you called her a bitch, then she deserved it." She nodded wisely and stood up. Resting a hand on Chuck's shoulder, she began to stretch out her quads. "Why'd you call her a bitch, anyway?"

He blushed, looking at something over her shoulder. "Um…well…I don't know. I mean, she got mad at me because I didn't do her lab report, and you know how she is."

Sarah alternated hands and stretched out her other quad. "Yeah, I know how she is. What'd she say, though? You're not one to call someone a bitch." She looked up thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, you've never called anyone a bitch."

"There's a first time for everything."

"What'd she say?"

"Something about me polishing my wand, and she wanted to know if that was why I was busy."

"Polishing your wand? Do you even own—oh."

"Yeah, and that was the second jerk-off joke I heard in the span of like fifteen minutes," he huffed. "I don't even do it that—I don't do it."

Sarah bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling accusingly at him. But when he turned a deep shade of red, she couldn't hold in the laughter anymore. Even he began to laugh, but he playfully pushed her while she was still stretching her quads, which caused her to almost fall over.

"You turd!" she cried, laughing, as she gave him a playful shove of her own.

Chuck retorted by sticking out his tongue. With another laugh, Sarah launched herself at him, tickling him under his ribs. Like a pile of Jenga blocks, he collapsed on the ground, giving her the perfect opportunity to tear off his shoes. She quickly sat on his knees so that he couldn't kick.

"NO!" he cried, squirming to get away. "Please, no!"

She ignored him, and tore off his sock. She flexed her fingers quickly, and dug them into the bottom of his foot, wriggling them against it. Behind her, Chuck was laughing, letting out weird animal noises, and squirming all at once.

"I'm sorry!"

"Sorry for what?" she asked over her shoulder as she continued to tickle his foot.

"For pushing you!"

"I don't believe you," she said, cackling. "But maybe if you did the Truffle Shuffle, I'll believe you."

"Never!"

Trying to catch her breath, she was about to tell Chuck that he was making a huge mistake, but Coach Fredericks called out, "Walker! Get off Bartowski and on to the field. Now!"

Still giggling, she rolled off Chuck and helped him to his feet. "This isn't over, Bartowski. I know where you sleep."

"Well, I know where your dad keeps the duct tape, so good luck trying to tickle my feet," he retorted with a wink.

Making a mental note to sprint home to hide the duct tape, because duct taping his shoelaces would be something he would do, Sarah grinned. "It's on, bean pole." Before giving Chuck a chance to respond, she sprinted over to the field where her teammates were gathered.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Queen Sarah," said Coach Fredericks. "Okay, we're going to run some suicide drills. Get on it, ladies!"

The girls all groaned as they began to line up to run the drill. The coach blew the whistle and all the girls started to sprint, Sarah and Carina leading the pack. Sarah was still grinning about the events from before¸ but her thoughts were quickly shattered.

"Hey, Taylor Hanson!" called Carina.

Sarah turned, "What—damn it!" She had given Carina a win by responding to Taylor Hanson. Oh, well. It was a small price to pay after having a bit of fun with Chuck, especially after a weird day like today.

"Made ya look," the redhead sneered, as they reached the end of the field, turned, and sprinted the other way. They ran past the other girls who had yet to reach the end. "What's up with your nerd friend? Chucky?"

"What do you mean?" She picked up her pace.

"He called me a bitch this morning."

Sarah tried not to laugh. "And that's a problem, because…?"

"It hurt my feelings! I expect that shit from other people, but not him!"

"Well, boo-fucking-hoo."

"Then Bryce was like, 'Leave him alone, he had a rough weekend.' And I was thinking that maybe those two were getting busy."

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"And everyone was talking about how you and Chucky banged at the kegger. At first, I thought it wasn't true, because how many rumors are true at this school, you know?"

Sarah stumbled in surprise. Carina was, in her weird way, standing up for her? Crazy. "Yeah?"

"I thought about it more," the redhead continued as they reached the goal line and turned. "And it makes total sense!"

And there that went, thought Sarah.

"So Chuck is having a rough time because you gave him a case of the herps, huh?"

Sarah flashed Carina a murderous look while the other grinned.

"Okay, but seriously." She was sobering up now. "What's wrong with the nerd?"

"Why do you care?"

"He hurt my feelings, bitch! I always thought he was a nice guy, and when he called me a bitch, I was like, 'What the hell, man?'"

Though if felt odd to tell Carina this (because, frankly, it wasn't her business), Sarah told her what had happened with Chuck's father.

"Oh, so those rumors were true, then?"

She nodded. "Yep. You can be a bitch to me all you want, but just leave Chuck alone for awhile, okay?"

"I was just curious," said Carina. "What about the rumors about the kegger? Did you and the nerd do it? Is that why Bryce broke up with you?"

"Is that what he's telling everyone?" What a typical guy thing to do, she thought. Crying after their girlfriend broke up with them, and then playing it cool, telling people that they were the ones that broke it off, because "she was a crazy bitch," or "she was such a slut, dude," it was so typical.

"Yeah."

"No, that's not why 'he broke up with me.'" She put her hands up in air-quotes. "And no, Chuck and I didn't do it at the kegger. Wait—" she broke off, realizing something, "why am I justifying myself to you?"

"I don't know. Maybe you're in heat."

"Well…maybe you're…shut up!" She was really off her game today.

"Awesome comeback." Carina laughed. "No wonder they call you Sarah 'Comeback' Walker, emphasis on the 'come.'"

Thankfully (since she didn't have a clever retort for that one either), Coach Fredericks blew the whistle.

The rest of the practice was spent on passing drills, defensive sweeps and tackles, and curve kicks. Throughout, Sarah was preoccupied. Nearly everyone at school thought she and Chuck had either made out or had sex at the party on Saturday, and her popularity, or status, or whatever hadn't changed one bit. People came to her to say hi or just to chat. None of the people she sat at lunch with had acted different, either.

People wouldn't care if she dated Chuck! She could have dated him a long time ago, and no one would have cared! All that time she had wasted, the times they could have shared. And Chuck, he surely would have received his first kiss from her a long time ago as well!

Forgetting about the curve kick drill, Sarah looked over at the bleachers. "Oh my God," she breathed.

Chuck was standing with Jill, and he was moving in for a hug. Only it wasn't a hug. Sarah saw Jill stand up on her tip-toes, and her heart broke when she saw their lips meeting somewhere in the middle. This was what it must have felt like to get stabbed in the chest, she thought.

"Heads up, Walker!"

She turned too late. The next thing she felt was a crushing blow to her face. The last thing she saw before getting hit by a soccer ball was stupid Jill eating Chuck's face.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! There's some big things coming ahead, like…a Breakfast Clubhomage, Heather Chandler, a fist fight, Sarah dressing up like Princess Leia, and….maybe…San Francisco? What?

As for Roads, that is seriously a tough one to write, you guys. I'm going to be honest with you, haven't worked on that one in ages. Is it abandoned? No. That's not fair to those who have read it from the beginning and became invested in it. So I promise you that there will be an update for that bad mama!

I have been working on something else for the past couple of months that is Roads related. It's a prequel, of sorts, about Sarah's parents. Mr. Walker/Jack/Gerald is going to play a pretty huge part in an upcoming chapter of Roads, and I wanted to tell his story in full. So I began to write a fic called The Long Con.

Here's a small preview:

Jack shook his head. Pull it together, he told himself as he did his best to smile as charmingly as he could. He handed the woman her purse. Her smile was of the relieved variety.

"Thank you so much," she repeated, "Mister…"

"Burton. But you can call me Jack, Miss…"

"Stark. Dana Stark." Dana held out her hand. "Honestly Jack, that was a really brave thing you just did."

"It was nothing. I was just being a good Samaritan," he said, still grinning confidently. Jack took her hand and winced in pain from the previous punch to Lunchbox's face.

Her smile faded into a look of concern. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have squeezed your hand so hard!" She pulled her hand back and brought it to her chest, the other holding it like she had just been burned. Then her eyes widened, and she quickly pulled open her purse. "Your nose is bleeding, you poor thing." She held out a handkerchief that she had pulled from her purse.

"No, really, I'm fine," he insisted, waving off her offer.

Dana shook her head. "I think it might be broken, Mr. Burton."

"It's Jack," he said with a chuckle. "And my nose is fine, Ms. Stark."

"Well, at the least, we should put some ice on it." Dana brought a finger to her lip as she looked around the street. Jack followed her gaze and was surprised to see that there was still a crowd of people around them. "There's a diner down the street. I can get you a cup of coffee as a thank you and put some ice on your hand and nose."

"Really, I'm—"

"Christ, son, did that guy give you brain damage?" Jack turned to see an old man, probably in his late fifties, scowling at him and wagging a finger. "A pretty girl like that just invited you for a cup of coffee, and you're gonna deny that? You must be kooky!"

-Let me know if you guys are interested in reading that one! I even made a cover! I am that excited about it, you guys. For serious.
http:(slash)(slash)twitpic(dot)com/5dn5mf